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Drawing in the air

3D printing pen 3Doodler allows you to create anything you can imagine

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Drawing in the air

3D printing pen 3Doodler allows you to create anything you can imagine

Paid Content by

Paid Content by Visa

Maxwell Bogue, Daniel Cowen and Peter Dilworth began a Kickstarter campaign in February of 2013 for the 3Doodler – the only 3D printing pen in existence. After the success of the campaign, 3Doodler went on to build their company and improve their product. And now, the 3Doodler 2.0 is available on the recently launched Mashable Shop. The shop, powered by Visa Checkout, includes a multitude of products for tech-lovers everywhere, along with some exclusive Mashable gear.

Read on, and watch the video below, to learn just how this innovative gadget was brought to life.

Penception

Development of the 3Doodler

Back in 2012, Bogue, Cowen and Dilworth were having a hard time with a 3D print. Somewhere along the hours-long process they endured to make a toy prototype, the printer they were using missed a few layers. They lamented about how much easier the whole process would be if they could just take the nozzle off the printer and fill in the gaps. This was their eureka moment.

They knew what they were making was something unique. "It's a massive game-changer," explains Cowen. "You could never just pick up a pen and create an object in 3D before. Now you can." The ability to draw in thin air was definitely something new, so creating a machine small enough to fit in your hand to allow users to draw with ease was going to be a challenge.

What they created works a lot like a supercharged glue gun: You insert tubes of 3d printing plastic into the back of the pen, which are heated and released via a nozzle in the front, allowing you to draw in real time. Thought the plastic is hot initially, it swiftly cools and dries, making the creation process simple.

Earlier this year, the team launched an improved version of the pen, the 2.0 version: It's much slimmer and easier to use, and can be paired with a multitude of doodling materials. Creative Director Faraz Warsi explains that his personal goal is to allow users to doodle with "every single material possible." On this dream, Cowen says, "I can't tell you too much, but we're gonna make the impossible happen."

A community of doodlers

Seeing people use the pen in ways that we could never imagine, and actually inspire others, has always been important to us.

3Doodler has already been put to use in unique and innovative ways. "I see new uses every day," Cowen says. "We have people making fashion items with it that have been on catwalks." Designer Amanda Sekulow created 10 garments using the 3Doodler and over 1000ft of ABS plastic. The pieces were shown in the Eloise Fashion Show in Tennessee on May 9, 2014.

Bogue expands on the many uses for 3Doodler, explaining that the pen can be used for education and adds that it also "allows you to create braille or tactile learning aids for the visually impaired, or the low-vision community." These communities have been using the 3Doodler to create classroom aids, such as mathematic graphs.

We go out and we support phenomenal teachers, artists, engineers who want to do cutting edge things with our pen. I’m very proud of that.

Daniel Cowen

Now, this new world of creation will be expanded to the Mashable audience -- the 3Doodler 2.0 is featured in the Mashable Shop. "3Doodler and Mashable are the perfect partners," Cowen explains. "For us, it's really the bringing together of a cutting-edge publication and a great product. I can see how our users and their readers go hand-in-hand."

And for those a little worried that they aren't enough of an artist to use the 3Doodler, Warsi contends that you have to try it for yourself. "Everyone has a better idea of 3D objects around them, so even if you can't draw in 2D, you can draw in 3D because you have a better sense of 3D space and proportions." Sounds like good news to us!

The 3Doodler is the world’s first 3D printing pen. With its slick design and option to draw with a continuous flow, this tool will allow you to create whatever is in your imagination. Available now, with the Mashable exclusive project book, in the Mashable Shop